Getting Away with Murder: Benazir Bhutto's Assassination and the Politics of Pakistan

by Heraldo Muñoz

Overview

By the lead commissioner of the UN investigation, an authoritative account of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.

On December 27, 2007, a suicide bomber killed Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister of Pakistan. Brilliant and charismatic, the head of a political family as important to Pakistani history as the Gandhis in India or the Kennedys in the United States, Bhutto had recently returned from exile to challenge military dictator Pervez Musharraf in a democratic election. In the aftermath of the assassination, some blamed Musharraf; others blamed terrorists linked to the Pakistani security service, the ISI; still others pointed the finger at Bhutto’s own spouse and entourage; and some speculated that it was a lone wolf attack. Though the individuals behind the conspiracy have never been found, in Getting Away with Murder Heraldo Muñoz goes further than anyone else to unravel the mystery of Bhutto’s death. Moreover, he explains the unexpected role America played in the tragic events, the byzantine relationship between Pakistan and the United States, and how Bhutto’s assassination impacted world politics. In a country ruled more often by military dictators than by elected governments, Bhutto offered a secular, democratic hope. Arguably one of Pakistan’s most iconic political figures, she became one of the world’s few female heads of government. Her assassination tore the country apart, destabilizing the entire region. Leading the United Nations’ inquiry, Muñoz delved into murky world of Pakistani politics and the infamous Bhutto family, awash in charisma and power, controversy and violence. His year-long investigation frames a story of betrayals, corruption, foreign influence, and unsolved political assassinations.

Muñoz provides new insight into Bhutto’s unprecedented rise and an unflinching, minute-by-minute narrative of the assassination itself. With impeccable research, Muñoz also situates Bhutto in the decades-long history of U.S.-Pakistan relations and the emergence of global terrorism, pinpointing her death as the moment when those relations changed forever.

The result is a gripping narrative of Pakistan’s turbulent political realities and the death of its leading politician.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393062915
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	12/09/2013
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	907,746
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 12.00(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Author of A Solitary War and the award-winning The Dictator’s Shadow, Heraldo Muñoz is the United Nations Assistant Secretary General in charge of Latin America and the Caribbean for the United Nations Development Program and the former Chilean ambassador to the United Nations. He lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations 11

Preface 15

1 A Murder Foretold 23

2 An Early History of Instability 37

3 Violence in the Family and in the Nation 49

4 On the Road to Islamabad 73

5 The US Gravitas in Pakistani Affairs 87

6 The US-Brokered Return of Bhutto to Her Homeland 117

7 The Assassination 133

8 Whodunit? 153

9 The Investigation's Repercussions 187

Epilogue: Reflections on Bhutto, bin Laden, and Pakistan's Ties to the United States 205

Acknowledgments 229

Notes 231

Index 255

Editorial Reviews

10/07/2013
On December 27, 2007, a suicide bomber fired three shots at Pakistan’s former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, at an election rally in Rawalpindi before detonating explosives. Based on his year-long inquiry into Bhutto’s assassination, U.N. assistant secretary general Muñoz (The Dictator’s Shadow) offers a well-researched account of Pakistan’s politics and the difficulties his commission faced during the investigation. To contextualize Bhutto’s assassination, Muñoz explores Pakistan’s turbulent history, including other unsolved political assassinations; the dominance of the military and intelligence services; the country’s longstanding, often acrimonious alliance with the U.S.; rivalries in the charismatic Bhutto family; General Musharraf and Bhutto’s mutual antipathy; and the rise of the Taliban and global terrorism. Muñoz raises suspicions about the role of Musharraf’s government and the military, noting that the police, under higher orders, hosed down the crime scene shortly after the blast, didn’t request an autopsy, and rushed to charge Baitullah Mehsud, “in association with Al-Qaida,” for the murder on little evidence. Though stopping short of fingering Musharraf, the author nevertheless says Musharraf bears “political and moral responsibility” by failing to provide Bhutto with adequate security when she returned to Pakistan after a nine-year exile. Though this book could have been more tightly edited, it nevertheless provides valuable insights—based on hundreds of interviews, documents, news reports, and astute observations—on Pakistan’s increasingly unstable condition. 10 illus. Agent: Fredrica S. Friedman, Fredrica S. Friedman & Co. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

"Like some of history’s other high-profile assassinations, including that of John F. Kennedy, the killing of Benazir Bhutto remains cloaked in rumor, speculation, and suspicion. Heraldo Muñoz and his colleagues found skeletons in many closets, smoking guns in many hands…The story of their search makes for a gripping read, but far more valuable are the insights Muñoz elicits about the nature of Pakistani society and its political culture."

Zalmay Khalilzad

"This is a chilling account of deceit, corruption and murder at the highest levels of power in Pakistan, an American ally. A carefully researched and compelling tale of tragedy masked as a government."

Tom Brokaw

"One opens this book to learn more about what lay behind the tragic death of Benazir Bhutto and is immediately drawn into its context—the turbulence of Pakistan’s politics and international relations going back to the foundation of the state. The book is essential reading for all who want to understand more about the state of Pakistan and the fate of one of its most talented daughters."

Helen Clark

"Muñoz has written a brilliant, incisive and page turning book—the last word on Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. The murder of Benazir Bhutto shook a nation and the world but until now there has never been an authoritative explanation as to how and why she died. Muñoz comes closest to identifying those guilty of her untimely and tragic death, guiding us through the enigma and chaos that is Pakistan and the double dealing that sustains the tortured relationship between that country and the United States."

Ahmed Rashid

11/01/2013
Muñoz (former Chilean ambassador to the United Nations) tells here the story of the events surrounding the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister of Pakistan. When Bhutto was assassinated on December 27, 2007, by a shooting followed by a suicide bomber, Muñoz was appointed by the United Nations as the head of a team to investigate the murder of the scion of arguably Pakistan's most important political family, who occupy the same status as the Kennedys in the United States and the Gandhis in India. In this readable and riveting volume, Muñoz describes the details of his mission and offers vignettes that were hitherto not widely known. Although the conspirators behind Bhutto's assassination have never been clearly identified, Muñoz delves into the complex nature of Pakistani society and its semi-Byzantine politics. Moreover, the author provides a useful picture of the tortured relations between Pakistan and the United States and places Bhutto's assassination in the context of changing U.S.-Pakistani relations. VERDICT Policymakers and informed readers will benefit from this timely book.—Nader Entessar, Univ. of South Alabama, Mobile

Library Journal

2013-10-28
Former Chilean ambassador to the United States Muñoz (The Dictator's Shadow: Life Under Augusto Pinochet, 2008 etc.) reports on the investigation into the facts and circumstances of Benazir Bhutto's (1953–2007) assassination. Now with the U.N. Development Program in Latin America and the Caribbean, the author, along with fellow commissioners, investigated on behalf of Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon after the Pakistani government's 2008 request; the group produced their report in early 2010. In addition to his account of their report, Muñoz assesses modern Pakistan's complex relations with the U.S. The narrative blends elements of a spy story with detective fiction and political thriller. Muñoz chronicles how the U.S. and British governments facilitated the return of Bhutto--scion of a leading Pakistani secularist and democratic political family who "had always wanted to be a diplomat and preferred intellectual debates rather than the corridors or smoke-filled rooms of power politics"--in order to broaden the political base of then-dictator Gen. Pervez Musharraf. The author shows that the government did not deliver on promises to provide security assistance or escorts, even while people outside the country attempted to exert influence on Bhutto's behalf. She was under attack from the day of her return to Karachi, when her convoy was bombed. After the assassination, authorities blamed Pakistan's Taliban-linked fundamentalists; they also circulated misleading stories about the cause of death, failed to autopsy the body and power-washed the scene of the crime almost immediately. Muñoz points to the double game Pakistan's intelligence service has played with the Taliban and al-Qaida and the mistrust that has prevailed between the U.S. and Pakistan, and he traces the roots of these conflicts back to the Cold War and the origins of Pakistan itself. An eye-opening political exposé of what has been described as the most dangerous country in the world.

Kirkus Reviews